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Some Interesting Dental Facts

As a dentist, your knowledge of teeth, gums, and all things related are a given. That’s why you are considered an expert above the rest of us and why your patients look to you for guidance when it comes to dental care. With that in mind, we thought it might be fun to compile a few dental facts that you can pass on to your patients so they can be more in touch with what it takes to keep their mouths healthy and happy. Try these on for size:

Most adults have 32 teeth. This includes 4 wisdom teeth, 8 incisors, 4 canines, 12 molars, and 8 pre-molars. The material that makes up your teeth, enamel, is the hardest substance in the human body. Tooth enamel is composed of calcium, mineral salts, and phosphorus.

Over the course of your lifetime, you’re likely to spend the equivalent of 38.5 total days brushing your teeth. But is this based on how much you actually are brushing or how much you should brush? The average person brushes for 45–70 seconds a day, but dentists recommend 2–3 minutes.

While you’re brushing, be sure that you’re flossing. If you don’t floss, you miss roughly 40% of the surface of your teeth during your cleaning. It is estimated that 73% of Americans would rather go grocery shopping than floss. Another of the cool dental facts is that commercial dental floss was first manufactured in 1882.

To keep your toothbrush healthy and clean, dentists recommend keeping it at least six feet away from the toilet to avoid airborne particles released during the flush. You should also replace your toothbrush every six months or after you have a cold, flu, or viral infections since microbes can implant on the bristles, leading to reinfection.

The reasons tooth prints can be used in forensic science is because, like fingerprints, each is unique. The same is true of tongue prints.

On a slightly different note, but still related, your patients who are women and children are apparently showing your work off more than your male patients. Although not strictly dental facts, it’s interesting to note that the average woman smiles 62 times a day, while the average man smiles only 8 times. And children laugh 400 times a day in comparison with adults chortling just 15 times in an average day.

While we can imagine that none of these dental facts were surprising to you, we do believe that they are important to pass on to your patients who may learn something new from them. When it comes to taking care of your teeth, knowledge is power, right? And so is knowledge critical when it comes to buying or selling a dental practice. That’s where our team at Menlo Dental Transitions comes in. We have the experience and expertise to provide you with everything you need to know to make a dental practice transition go well. Want to learn more? We invite you to contact us today!